Ball and socket joints of the type mentioned in the introduction are used, for example, but by no means exclusively, on the chassis or in the area of the wheel suspension or steering of motor vehicles, for example, as a support joint or as a guide joint.
Ball and socket joints of this type according to the state of the art usually have a one-part housing as well as a bearing shell arranged therein, which is usually made of a polymer material. To fix the bearing shell in the housing, an axially front-side area of the housing is usually deformed such that the bearing shell and the ball are pressed or enclosed in the joint housing under a certain prestress.
Other prior-art designs of ball and socket joints of this class likewise have a one-part joint housing, and a two-part bearing shell, which likewise consists usually of a plastic, is arranged in the joint housing. The joint housing is closed and the bearing shell is fixed in the housing in a similar manner as in the prior-art ball and socket joints with a one-part bearing shell.
However, the problem arises during the manufacture of such prior-art ball and socket joints that the position of the ball shell in the joint housing and especially the prestress ratios between the bearing shell and the joint ball cannot be optimally controlled and are not reproducible during the closing of the housing, which is brought about, as described, in general, by deforming a partial area of the joint housing.
The value of the prestressing forces in the ball and socket joint—and the functionally important characteristic of the tilting moment necessary for the motion of the joint ball in the ball shell—thus depend essentially on the care with which the deformation process is carried out in the prior-art ball and socket joints. The consequence is therefore a correspondingly broad dispersion of the tilting moment values in the ball and socket joints known from the state of the art. However, such tolerances of the tilting moment values are increasingly not accepted, especially in case of demanding applications.